The Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Three Dimensions

Details The Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Three Dimensions The Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Three Dimensions

2007-09-04

arxiv.org/abs/0709.0452v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

14 pages, 9 pages, accepted by ApJ

Scientific paper

10.1086/523099

We study the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor instability in three dimensions, with focus on the nonlinear structure and evolution that results from different initial field configurations. We study strong fields in the sense that the critical wavelength l_c at which perturbations along the field are stable is a large fraction of the size of the computational domain. We consider magnetic fields which are initially parallel to the interface, but have a variety of configurations, including uniform everywhere, uniform in the light fluid only, and fields which change direction at the interface. Strong magnetic fields do not suppress instability, in fact by inhibiting secondary shear instabilities, they reduce mixing between the heavy and light fluid, and cause the rate of growth of bubbles and fingers to increase in comparison to hydrodynamics. Fields parallel to, but whose direction changes at, the interface produce long, isolated fingers separated by the critical wavelength l_c, which may be relevant to the morphology of the optical filaments in the Crab nebula.

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